and TaconiteBy Tom Schreck and Jason DoyleTABLE OF CONTENTS57384440An Introduction to

Intent Driven DesignBy Peter Bell…3416Content Management

with ColdFusionBy Harry Klein…2832Before and Afterwith an AJAXRich Internet

Application GUIBy Nate Weisiger…2040CFDJ

NOVEMBER 2006 ColdFusionJournal.comIn today’s global economy, serviceproviders are under increasingpressure to maximize margins andstreamline operational efﬁ ciency to remain competitive.In order to do this, providers are turning to new technolo-gies, advanced collaboration with partners and creative servicestrategies to ensure a well-managed workforce. They are alsocreating virtual workforces where resources may work from homeor on the road over a disparate geographic region. To this end,service providers are seeking to reduce or all together eliminatethe brick and mortar ofﬁ ce, and replace it with a loose coalition ofpeople with diverse skill sets. As this shift continues in the serviceindustry, so do their requirements. For example, they are nowrequired to handle the entire service order management processby continually updating their offerings to stay competitive againstothers in the same industry; i.e., doing more with less.The Catholic Community Services (CCS) serves the Deafand Hard of Hearing community in Arizona and New Mexicoby providing sign language interpreting, vocational assis-tance, counselingand other services.CCS and its agenciesin Phoenix, Tucsonand New Mexico,have provided inter-preter referral ser-vices over 25 years.In recent times, thethree agencies deter-mined that they hadoutgrown their cus-tom software, which was inﬂ exible in dealing with changes inthe market, and which had been modiﬁ ed locally in each city,resulting in incompatible platforms. CCS needed, not onlya way to operate their backend ofﬁ ce across three locations,but also needed new ways to increase revenue and serviceofferings. In order to update their service technology, theyelected to go with a web-based solution to handle service col-laboration, fulﬁ llment and administrative activities.Best SolutionAfter a thorough pilot development and evaluation, it wasdecided to use ColdFusion to develop the CCS service manage-ment solution which automates all aspects of personnel sched-uling, time recording, billing and invoicing. Overall, the solutioncomprises ﬁ ve parts:1. Service Order Collaboration: Scheduling and collaborationcapabilities are at the heart of the system. By providing greatervisibility into workforce assets, administrators can deployskilled resources by reviewing details on the number and typeof associates needed for a given day and time, while keepingovertime parameters and budget objectives in the mix. Theweb-based platform identiﬁ es the best-matched resource,notifying and receiving conﬁ rmation from all participants.2. Service Fulﬁ llment: Once the proper resource has been iden-tiﬁ ed and assigned, the system automatically tracks each jobuntil completion.3. Service Settlement: The system automates pay rules and en-sures compliance with government regulations and contracts.It tracks service claims, ledger activity, ﬁ nancial adjustments,customer invoices and statements, and payments.4. Administrative Platform: The system includes a centralized,web-based interface for managing services, service regions, re-sources, accounts, service calendars, organizational hierarchies,consumers, pay rates, terms and conditions, as well as others.5. Reporting & Analysis: This allows organizations to track keyperformance indicators (KPIs) and make informed decisionsfor establishing best practices to ensure increased productiv-ity at all service levels.To summarize, the CCS solution enables management to au-tomate and streamline all aspects of the ﬁ eld service operations,allowing providers to offer additional services with greater ac-cessibility to ensure growth and ﬁ tness for service. The solution’sarchitecture allows virtually unlimited numbers of people tointeract, conduct business and receive services through a col-laborative environment.Why ColdFusionColdFusion was a clear winner for a number of reasons,chief among them its ability for Rapid Application Development(RAD) and prototyping. The goal in developing a workforcemanagement solution was not to focus on the technology, butcf success storyImproves Service to Deaf and Hard of HearingA ColdFusion Service ManagementSystem Streamlines OperationsBy Nader Ayoub42CFDJ

NOVEMBER 2006ColdFusionJournal.cominstead on the business problem and ensuing solution. ColdFu-sion offered the best support for developing an extensive servicesystem encompassing over 3,000 web pages, accessible fromvarious devices, while providing a means to expand daily, em-bracing new technologies, enhanced capabilities and additionaluses.ColdFusion let us centralize database access, and handlerequests for over 1,000 SQL statements and debug rapidly. Inorder to create a large-scale, web-based system, we constructeda ColdFusion framework and scaled it to handle the entire ap-plication. By leveraging reusable components and the readilyextensible language itself, we were able to create and changeliterally thousands of pages rapidly, giving us a better opportu-nity to adapt the technology to the business, as opposed to otherway around. We were able to change and migrate to many Webservers and database engines without third-party plug-ins, andwith few revisions as the solution evolved. Additionally, it pro-vided out-of-the-box advantages over many other products onthe market. In other words, we focused on solving the personnelresource scheduling problem, independent of the technology.ColdFusion held the shortest learning curve of any languagein the web space, moreover, with its rapid development capa-bilities, the real cost in software development was not in thesetup, but in the cost of adjusting the software to meet new andburgeoning business requirements.We managed to displace the initial software costs by selectinga hosting partner. By using CFDynamics, we were able to rapidlyset up a dedicated environment for ColdFusion and SQL Serverwith support, data backups and 24/7 monitoring-- allowing usto focus on core development in an environment accessiblefrom anywhere. Between ColdFusion and CFDynamics hosting,we were able to focus on the business because they took careof the technology. In essence, Adobe’s ColdFusion became avehicle to deliver a world-class, large-scale, multi-organization,multi-user and feature-rich environment in a relatively shortperiod of time.A Win-Win ProgramThe Catholic Community Services (CCS) witnessed immedi-ate and real results after implementing the ColdFusion system:improved operational efﬁciency, reduction in time for billingand payroll processing, and the reduction of data entry errorsthrough elimination of redundant data entry. The organizationis now better equipped to provide the highest quality servicepossible, while reducing its labor costs. They are able to ﬁeldmore service requests and accelerate service fulﬁllment. Theycan coordinate various contract personnel in remote locations,match resources with the job requirements, resolve conﬂicts,collect billing information, and track a service order until pay-ment completion. In general, the added beneﬁts include:• Improved personnel scheduling and matching• Reduction in travel costs• Elimination of data entry errors• More satisﬁed workers• Faster invoice processing and payments• Reduced call load with customer self-service• Increased visibility for better decision makingThe solution allows administrators to schedule servicepersonnel across three geographic locations encompassingstatewide services in Arizona and New Mexico including ruralareas, keep track of work performed, expenses, and billing, whilecoordinating over 400 resources and service personnel. Amongthose who beneﬁt from the solution are:• Administrators: From one location, administratorscan handle all the complexities of a service order (fromcreation to assignment), resource conﬁrmation, claims ofservices provided, ﬁnal billing and invoicing. Billing state-ments reﬂect current account status and reduce collectionactivity for unpaid invoices in previous billing cycles. Avi-anco accelerates these operations as administrators canexecute all order-related activities from a single screen.Administrators gain better visibility into daily operationsby retrieving real-time data on employees’ time, sched-ule, vacation, and overtime, and contractors’ availabilityand preferences. Accordingly, they now have the ability todynamically swap resource schedules to meet changingneeds.• Interpreter Resources: The system offers a new level ofpersonnel participation and self-management in thescheduling process. Interpreters get a convenient andsimple way to see their future schedule online, withouthaving to call in or receive daily paged or emailed sched-ules. By directly accessing information and reportingtheir time, interpreters feel as though they are an integralpart of the solution -- contributing to the overall successof the organization. Accessing the system inthe ﬁeld via a wireless device (PDA, tablet PC,notebook, even cell phone), interpreters canretrieve work orders, obtain directions to theirnext site, and instantly submit hours and closeorders from the ﬁeld. With the online solution, CCS hassigniﬁcantly increased interpreters’ satisfaction and reten-tion.• Customers (the groups or businesses that provide paymentsfor the clients): By introducing an online self-service ability,cf success storyColdFusionJournal.com43CFDJ

NOVEMBER 2006customers can create their own service requests at any time.Many customers welcome the speed and convenience ofcreating requests and checking status without administratorintervention. Of course, CCS acknowledges that not all of itscustomers are comfortable solely using the online self-ser-vice feature. However, the system has signiﬁcantly reducedstaff workload so they are free to handle new accounts overthe phone.• Deaf and Hard of Hearing Clients (the ultimate recipientof services): Giving the clients online access is a signiﬁcantbyproduct of the system. Clients could check on schedulesand retrieve documents prior to an interpreter’s visit.The system also allows CCS to handle all assignmentsbeyond interpreters, where other departments, such as ClientServices are able to handle staff scheduling and coordination.Finally, the software is instrumental in setting up new servicespreviously unavailable, such as Support Service Providers andCommunity Outreach programs.What’s NextBy leveraging ColdFusion, we are continuing to explore ad-ditional services and options for automation. One such serviceoffered by the system is video interpreting through the inter-net, IP-message relaying, and text messaging via ColdFusion’sgateway capabilities. Soon we will include an online paymentoption, allowing customers to review invoices online and postpayments to their accounts. We are also exploring other waysColdFusion’s technology can beneﬁt CCS and the deaf commu-nity at large.About the AuthorNader Ayoub is president and founder of Avianco.ayoub@avianco.com